19 Ways Running a Business is Just Like Playing Tennis

TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome to episode number 21 of the Tennis Business Academy Podcast.

Today’s topic is lighter than normal. A little less serious.

But, having said that, at the end of the episode, once we do go through the list of 19 ways in which running a business is similar to playing tennis, I do want to make one important observation.

So, stick around for that one.

Now, a big part of why I enjoy discussing and talking about business is because I’ve always seen it as a game. Just like tennis, or any other sport for that matter.

But I’ve never really put that much thought into this idea that business is just like tennis, until now that is.

And as I started putting this episode together, the more similarities I found between tennis and business, which is how we ended up with a rather large list of 19 different things.

And since there’s quite a few to get through, let’s jump right into it.

Here are 19 ways running a business is just like playing tennis:

1) You’re going to have competition

In business and in tennis there will always be other people and organisations competing with you for the same thing.

In tennis that’s wins and trophies. In business it’s resources and customers.

More specifically, in business we’re competing for customers’ leisure time, which means that our competitors aren’t just other tennis clubs or coaches.

People go to work or kids go to school and then they have a few free hours where they can decide what to do with their time.

They could play tennis or they could play football, rugby, cricket, video games, go to yoga, to the gym, to the cinema, to the theatre, for a run, or just sit at home in front of the TV.

The number of competitors in business is pretty much unlimited.

So, yes, in tennis and in business you’ll always have competition - that’s part of what makes the game fun!

2) You’ll need to learn multiple skills

Both business and tennis require you to spend time and effort learning a lot of different skills.

On-court you’ll need to learn how to hit your strokes, improve your physical skills, and master the psychology of the game, etc.

In business you will need to learn about marketing, customer service, leadership, management, finance, and more.

If you want to get good at tennis or at business be prepared to learn and struggle with a variety of skills.

3) Things will go wrong

If you play tennis or you're in business long enough, something at some point will go wrong.

I can 100% guarantee that.

It could be that an assistant coach cancelled last minute and left you to coach a session all on your own, or the fact that the wind is making it impossible for you to play your game well.

At the end of the day, in business and in tennis things will go wrong at some point, and you’ll need to deal with it.

4) You’ll need problem solving skills

This one is tied to the previous point.

If things are going against you you can react in one of two ways, either give up or try to find a solution to the issue you’re facing.

Well, guess what, the best players and business leaders find solutions.

They understand that problems and issues are just a part of the game and they develop a strong aptitude for solving problems well and on the fly when necessary.

5) The best players learn from their losses

The best tennis players know that the best way to improve is to learn through their losses.

How and why did they lose and what do they need to work on so that it doesn’t happen again.

In business the same principle applies.

You will also ‘lose’ on your business journey. And the best business leaders will try to understand why they lost and change what needs to be changed to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

6) Keep progressing or become irrelevant

Do you remember what Rafa’s game looked like when he won his first Roland Garros title in 2005 when he was 19?

And how much has he improved his game since then? It’s impossible to quantify, but he’s certainly improved a lot, I’m sure you would agree.

And the same is true for Novak or Roger, for example.

The best players know that if they stop progressing they’ll soon become irrelevant because their competitors will keep improving.

In business the same exact idea applies.

Your job is to keep looking for the best way to improve how you manage internal processes and serve customers.

Or else you’ll eventually become irrelevant in the marketplace.

7) You can choose to play dirty or play fair

And sometimes the lines will get blurred in both tennis and business.

Who’s never been in a match with a player that’s clearly cheating and maybe, just maybe, felt tempted to start cheating too?

Well, in business the same also happens from time to time.

It’s up to you to define clearly what you’re unwilling to do and stick to those rules even when it might feel unfair.

8) Cool heads win matches

This is one of the things that I learned through playing tennis that has served me the most outside the court.

People who let their emotions, and especially their negative emotions take over, rarely make good decisions.

And if you don’t make good decisions you’re going to have a hard time winning the game.

In tennis and in business.

9) Resilience is key

There’s definitely going to be highs and lows in your tennis and your business journey.

Through the lows, resilience is what will keep you going even when you don’t know how things will pan out.

10) You need big goals and a clear vision

A clear vision of where you want to get to is what will help you stay motivated.

This might be wanting to be a professional tennis player, or build the best tennis club or coaching programme in your area.

It doesn’t matter.

In any endeavour, the people with the big, inspiring vision are always more likely to stay motivated for the long term.

11) You’ll need a game plan

Having a strategy and the systems and structure to support it is key in both business and tennis.

If you don’t have a plan you’re relying purely on instinct or luck. And while that can work sometimes, sooner or later it will let you down.

The best tennis players define a strategy for each match and a plan for the whole season.

And the best business leaders have clearly defined strategies to attack the market and solid systems in place to be able to deliver their products and services to their customers at a high standard every single day.

Consistency is key in both business and tennis and the best way to develop consistency is to develop solid strategies and put systems in place to deliver on those strategies.

12) Your mindset plays a crucial role

In both tennis and business your mindset can make or break you.

In fact, if you’ve got the wrong mindset even when you’re winning, it’ll feel like you’re losing.

And if you keep the wrong mindset for long periods of time, guess what, you will end up actually losing.

Good players, in both business and tennis, focus on what they can control and spend very little time and energy worrying about what they can’t control.

This allows them to get a sense of progress around their work that then motivates them to keep going, creating a virtuous cycle.

If you have the wrong mindset, the opposite happens.

13) Sometimes you’ll need to take risks

Courage is necessary in both business and tennis and risk-taking, when applied correctly, is a good thing.

Or to put it another way, sometimes the riskiest thing you can do is to try to not take any risks.

But with this I’m not suggesting that you should just start taking crazy risks all the time.

The real skill lies in being able to take calculated risks when the time is right, in both business and tennis.

14) You’ll need to define your own unique approach to the game

Every good tennis player eventually develops their own way of playing the game.

And the same is true for every business and organisation.

Every good business eventually develops their own way of approaching the marketplace.

Now, regardless of whether we’re talking about tennis or business, this approach might be obvious to you from the start, or it might take you years to finally figure it out.

But eventually you want to find the ‘thing’ or ‘things’ that allow your business to be unique while at the same time also feeling ‘right’.

15) Hard work pays off

I mean, does this one even need explanation?

The best tennis players have spent tens of thousands of hours perfecting their craft.

And if you want to build a successful business you’re also going to have to spend tens of thousands of hours building it.

This is as much a part of the game as the ball or the balance sheet.

16) You need to learn to handle the pressure

Pressure and stress are also a part of the game, in both tennis and business.

I once heard Rafa say that before a big match he still needs to use the bathroom 2 or 3 times.

If Nadal still gets nervous and anxious after all these years, then I can guarantee that at times you’ll feel nervous and anxious too.

The key is in being able to frame this stress as a positive. As a way of your body preparing you for something important.

Regardless of whether this an important match or an important meeting.

17) You need to be adaptable

Good players are able to adapt their game to suit the conditions or the opponent.

This is as true on-court, as it is off it.

18) Sometimes you need to stop and recover

When you’re trying to get better at something and pursuing achievement it’s easy to try to keep going continually.

To try to push through because there’s more work to be done.

But sometimes the best decision is to stop for a while to recover, before going again.

Your body and your mind need to rest every once in a while, so that you can keep performing at a high level.

Exhaustion is a thing in both tennis and business.

19) Fun needs to be a part of the equation

This is the last one and arguably the most important of them all.

If you’re having fun playing matches, or running your business then you’ll be more likely to want to keep doing it and to do a good job.

This doesn’t mean that every single second has to be fun.

Just that the overall experience, if you want longevity, needs to be fun.

You need to feel like what you’re doing is enjoyable most of the time and that you’re working towards something worthwhile.

If not, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure.

——

Ok, there you have it. 19 ways in which running a business is similar to playing tennis.

But like I said at the beginning of the episode, I do have one last important idea to cover.

And that is that if business is indeed similar to tennis, which I really think it is in many ways, then if you enjoy tennis it stands to reason to assume that you’ll probably enjoy business, as long as you look at it through the perspective of it being a game.

So, if you’ve never felt like business was your ‘thing’ I’m hoping that this episode makes you pause and consider that maybe business can be interesting and even fun, as long as you look at it from the right angle.

And that therefore you’d be willing and perhaps even inspired to spend a bit more time learning and executing on the different skills and initiatives necessary to build and run a successful business or club.

That was my goal, anyway!

Alright that’s it for today’s episode. As always I’ll be back next week with another instalment of the Tennis Business Academy podcast.

Until then and thanks for tuning in.